Thanks for sharing these good sources. I’m eager to read them and learn more.
I also recommend Empires of the Atlantic World by J.W. Elliot. Although the book is broad-ranging and not focused exclusively the causes of depopulation, it presents details of how Spain viewed inhabitants of the New World in the same way as it did those of territories it had recently conquered in Europe: as vassals who would provide the labour, while the conquerors sat at the top of the social hierarchy and pursued the consolidation of the conquest and extraction of resources.
From this perspective, the subsequent depopulation was not the intended goal of the conquerors, although they indeed caused it through disease, wars against resisting groups, and disasterous attempts at improving the agriculture system to fit European models.
> From this perspective, the subsequent depopulation was not the intended goal of the conquerors, although they indeed caused it through disease, wars against resisting groups, and disasterous attempts at improving the agriculture system to fit European models.
Depopulation might not have been the goal of the Spanish, but it was a very explicit goal - in fact the foundational goal - of Anglo-American settlers.
For example, in order to become a state, newly settled territories had to meet specific criteria which included a minimum ratio of settlers to native. That created powerful incentives to drive away natives by any means necessary.
The history of Tennessee is a brutal example of this, but there are (literally) dozens of examples to chose from.
That is also why, in the US independence war, most tribes that participated chose to side with the British Empire. They understood very well that between a distant empire focused on resource extraction on the one hand, and a fast-growing nation of settlers focused on land acquisition and ethnic cleansing on the other, it was in their interest to pick the lesser evil.
I also recommend Empires of the Atlantic World by J.W. Elliot. Although the book is broad-ranging and not focused exclusively the causes of depopulation, it presents details of how Spain viewed inhabitants of the New World in the same way as it did those of territories it had recently conquered in Europe: as vassals who would provide the labour, while the conquerors sat at the top of the social hierarchy and pursued the consolidation of the conquest and extraction of resources.
From this perspective, the subsequent depopulation was not the intended goal of the conquerors, although they indeed caused it through disease, wars against resisting groups, and disasterous attempts at improving the agriculture system to fit European models.